The Sochi Olympics aren't yet 48 hours old, and the first allegations of shady dealings in figure skating judging have surfaced.

The source is the French magazine L'Equipe, which wrote Saturday that the United States and Russia are conspiring to help one another in the pairs and ice dance events, with Canada's reigning Olympic dance champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir paying the price.

Sochi 2014: Thrills and spills from Day 2

Quoting an unidentified Russian coach, the magazine reported that the US had agreed to help Russia win the pairs and team event. In exchange, it reported, Russia would help US ice dancers Meryl Davis and Charlie White, the reigning world champions, win gold in their event.

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Davis and White train in the same Michigan rink, under the same coaches as their Canadian rivals, Virtue and Moir.

Saturday at Sochi's Iceberg Palace, where the inaugural Olympic team event resumes, they'll compete their short programs in succession with their weight of their respective countries on their shoulders.

Locked in a three-way tie for fifth in the team event, the United States is counting on Davis and White to vault the squad into safer standing. Ten countries are vying for gold, but only the five top scorers will advance to Sunday's medal round.

Dance is the third of figure skating's four disciplines to be contested in the event. As reigning world champions, Davis and White can, and should, post the top scores for their short program, which would be worth 10 points, doubling the United States' score.

Whatever deficit remains after Davis and White compete will fall on Ashley Wagner later Saturday. The women's short program is the final event in the preliminary phase of the competition.

United States and Canadian figure skating officials later dismissed reports of a possible fix.

Russia were on track for gold in the team event on Saturday with 47 points, with Canada in second on 41 and the United States a further seven points behind in third.

"Comments made in a L'Equipe story are categorically false," US Figure Skating said in a statement.

"There is no 'help' between countries. We have no further response to rumours, anonymous sources or conjecture."

And Mike Slipchuk, Skate Canada's high performance director, said he did not see how it was possible.

"I was involved as an official in the system, and I don't see how that is possible," former figure skater Slipchuk, 47, told AFP.

"We were made aware about that article today. We're focused on what the skaters do on the ice.

"The decision will be made on how they perform. We're on the verge of finishing the first team event and want to focus on that. We haven't had any concern about any result this past week."

There has been an ongoing rivalry between the two couples who train together under Russian coach Marina Zoueva in Detroit going back to their junior skating days.

Two-time world champions Virtue and Moir were runners-up to the Americans at both the world championships last year and the Grand Prix Final in December.

Meanwhile, Olympic silver medallists Davis and White scored highest in Saturday's short dance in the team event with 75.98 points, with Virtue and Moir second with 72.98.

The current scoring system was introduced after the 2002 Olympic judging scandal when a French judge claimed she had been pressured to vote for a Russian pairs team over Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier.

The Canadians were later awarded a second gold medal.

The new team event concludes in Sochi on Sunday, with ice dancing to be held on February 16-17.

Washington Post, AFP

16 comments so far

And why aren't we surprised by all this? Who cares, anyway? Plastic smiles on plastic faces. All points-awarded events should be dropped from the Olympics.

Commenter

idgat

Location

newcastle

Date and time

February 09, 2014, 9:54AM

agree but fastest, longest, highest etc would severely limit Olympic competition both summer (no diving, no gymnastics?) and winter.subjective judging is a fact of life in many sports eg. surfing and has to be accepted with all its possible failings.

Commenter

Nick

Date and time

February 09, 2014, 11:49AM

what could be done is to simplify the judging process. but it will come at the cost of entertainment. eg, everybody does the same routine/tricks so its much easier to compare if team A or team B was better.

Commenter

james

Date and time

February 09, 2014, 10:43PM

These days news media are so good at making news to attract eyeballs and less responsible to what they published. Personally I reckon news like “quoted from an unidentified coach”, “according to a group of xyz scientists”, “sourced from unconfirmed report” etc. should never be made public. This is just against the principle of news – broadcasting the truth, not ramous. News like this has so much negative impact to athletics, and it’s just insult to the athletics and the public if it’s not true and have no founded source. And even worse, how many times did you see the media steps out and apologise when the ramous has been refuted by truth?

Commenter

Jack

Location

Brisbane

Date and time

February 09, 2014, 11:20AM

What do you mean 'these days'? HST wrote in his 1966 'Hells Angels' book that the media use 'alleged', 'claimed',and 'according to' in it's stories to cover their arse in telling porkie pies.

Commenter

micko

Date and time

February 09, 2014, 5:10PM

I think the headline is wrong.

Should just read "Figure Skating - Dodgy".

Commenter

Blades of Glory

Location

On the Zamboni

Date and time

February 09, 2014, 11:33AM

What nonsense and utter rubbish! Have you seen how the Russian pairs team skated on the 7th Feb in the short dance? They were a head above the rest. If not, I highly recommend the you do before you criticize or post comments. Anything to dampen the spirit of Olympic games. Let us enjoy the games and athletes (who've trained for years) without conspiracy theories added to the mix please.

Commenter

Jane

Date and time

February 09, 2014, 12:16PM

As a lover of winter Olympic sports I grieve. The Winter Games have become a farce.

Commenter

Rob

Date and time

February 09, 2014, 12:25PM

There is always cheating, whether it's corruption or it's athletes taking drugs, if there is incentive to get a medal and wealth with sponsorship deals, they'll do anything to get it.

Commenter

Ellie

Location

Sydney

Date and time

February 09, 2014, 12:59PM

Do we get rid of the judges and just base it on how much is waged via sports betting? Might be just as accurate.